Title: A Kodak moment

Author: Loz

E-Mail: loz06@yahoo.com

Rating: PG

Category: CJ/Leo

Series: Stand alone

Spoilers: None

Archive (if applicable): The National Library http://westwingstories.com/library

Feedback: The good, the bad and the very ugly it's all appreciated.

Summary: One of those moments in life that stays with you forever.

Author's Notes:

Disclaimers: I'm neither heir to a photograph fortune nor a TV and movie empire.

*

The hair on the back of CJ's head is sticking clammily to her neck. Slowly a wet V has been forming down the back of her cotton shirt from dripping perspiration and without the protection of her skirt, her thighs are sticking to the expensive leather lounge. Her hands are swollen and itching from where she had been holding a iced drink, cooling her hands too fast.

Add to that her underwear has creep up like a thong and she can't move because she's officially 9 months and 5 days pregnant.

They were going to have to kick this kid out of her, its rent had run out.

"Is it really hot or is it just me?" She calls to Leo.

"Is the humidity getting to you?" He asks putting on hand on her forehead and the other on his.

"It runs a close second to the fact that this kid won't pack its bags and leave home."

"Your temperature is normal."

"It'd be the only thing."

"I'll help you take a shower."

These days Leo has to do most things for her, tie her shoe laces, get her out of bed in the morning and get her out of the depths of the couch so that she has a chance of being able to stand up. She hasn't got a hope in hell of touching her toes and some things she can no longer reach because her arms aren't long enough. She can't drive because if she puts the seat back to accommodate her stomach she can't push the clutch to the floor with her foot. Simple everyday things have become half-marathons, often requiring two people to complete.

~*~

In the bedroom he watches her strip away her sweaty clothes and instinctively rub her stomach once she is naked. Despite everything he knows she has loved being pregnant.

"If it's possible, I think I've wanted you more these past few months." He says watching her from the doorway

"I miss sex." She says and he cringes as she waddles uncomfortably towards the bed, too tired to be bothered with the shower.

During her second trimester with her hormones racing they'd gone at it like newlyweds, with the occasional emotional outburst from her in between, since then however her stomach had gotten too big and uncomfortable.

"Where's the camera?" He asks rubbing her lower back once she has settled on her side in the bed. He remembers Jenny telling him how the lower back carried most of the weight of the baby, for CJ a massage from him had become one of her only joys for the last few weeks.

"You're not taking pictures of me."

"Why not? You'd look stunning Demi Moore style."

"Complete with stretch marks and a thin pasting of sweat, I think not. Lower please." She yawns.

"CJ these last 9 months if it's possible you've been even sexier, it's driving me crazy, there's no way we can't do this again."

"Huh, easy enough for you, you don't have to do the hard work, we'll discuss it at a later date." She mumbles, cloaked in drooping eyes and an exhausted body.

"Discuss it over sex?" He asks optimistically and continues to massage regardless of the silence he gets as an answer.

When he's sure she's asleep he stops. It's too cruel, the fact that it's warm enough for her to sleep naked next to him.

~*~

When she opens her eyes the next morning, CJ finds herself sleeping alone and trying to recall the hazy details of the night before. The massage and her dropping off to sleep seep back into her mind.

She can feel his legs intertwined with hers, so she knows he's in the bed someplace.

When her eyes do capture him her heart swells and a tiny tear trickles out of one eye.

He's sleeping naked next to her, forehead to her basketball-sized belly with a protective hand resting over it.

"Where's the camera now?" She whispers to him as he continues his slumber, reaching to cover his hand with hers and brush the other through his sandy hair.

It's moments like these that need be captured forever.